


The Rose and the Dragon

by Lieju



Category: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Genre: (i'm gay), Established Relationship, F/F, hnnn dragon maleficent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 23:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20786927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lieju/pseuds/Lieju
Summary: ”I could kill you in one bite, with one breath of cursed fire, in this form."”You could kill me in your human form too.”





	The Rose and the Dragon

Aurora opened the door to the enormous and labyrinthine castle archives.

”Hello, Diablo,” she petted the raven perched on a bookshelf.

Diablo croaked in return and lifted his head to ask for more scratches under his beak.

“You're a good bird. Hard at work bird.” Aurora turned towards the other figure in the dusty archives. “Not the only one hard at work I see. For days on end.”

She walked to the taller woman and reached to see what she was reading, casually running her fingers on her greenish hand.

”It's not something you can understand,” Maleficent said. ”It's written in the Old Language, forgotten by most. Even I can only glimpse parts of its meaning.”

”My ancestors used to speak a different language?” Aurora asked, focusing her attention on the old parchment on the granite book stand that was illuminated by the cold green light emanating from Maleficent's staff.

Maleficent noted Aurora's hand had left hers as the princess reached to touch the text and trace the mysterious half-faded symbols with her slender finger.

”Some of them, maybe,” she said. ”The tongue you were taught as a child is the same as the tongue of your parents, but slightly different. Things change. New words appear, old ones are forgotten or pronounced differently. All generations can understand the next one but repeat this long enough and you end up with something completely new. When this text was originally written the people were speaking in ways you would only understand parts of. In addition this parchment is but a few hundred years old, and a flawed copy of an older text.”

She reached to take Aurora's hand. ”But even if not ancient it is still fragile.”

Aurora intertwined her fingers with hers. ”What does it say?”

”It appears to be an account of the harvest in the vale the king of this kingdom had invaded a few years prior. And orders on how much of the grain should be set aside to be used as seed for the next year.”

”Interesting.”

Aurora pulled Maleficent's hand to her lips and placed a kiss on it. ”Nothing about dark magicks, though?”

”Magic alone does not feed the hungry. The kings of old might have dabbled in the Art more than they now do, but a kingdom still needs land and people to sow their fields and harvest their crops and keep records to know how to prepare for the winter even with witch kings and queens on the throne.”

”Yes... It's important, the mundane work. Not that magic doesn't have its own... special tricks.” She gave Maleficent a smile.

The fairy sighed. ”You are not subtle.”

Aurora leaned on her, pressing her cheek against her robe-covered chest. ”Only because you know me well enough to understand the things I'm not saying.” She looked up, the smile still lingering on her lips. ”Can I see it again?”

Maleficent might have known her well enough to predict what she would do most of the time but she didn't _understand_ her. Maybe it was like the three had said; she couldn't comprehend true love.

”Only because I could use a moment to stretch my wings.”

Maleficent stepped back and summoned the full extent of her power. She let it wash over her, fill her to the brim, overflow and overpower her human form until it shifted and grew, taking the form of a mighty dragon.

She stretched her wings as much as she could in the archives hall. In a way they were always there, tucked inside of her human form. But it did feel nice to have them out every now and then.

She settled on four legs and reached to Aurora.

”I could kill you in one bite, with one breath of cursed fire, in this form,” she reminded her.

”You could kill me in your human form too,” the princess pointed out.

She scratched under the dragon's chin and reached to place a kiss on her maw.

The tingle that ran through Maleficent was equal parts of pleasant and distressing. Not that she would ever admit to either of those feelings.

”Hm. You are right.”

Maybe she couldn't understand the kind of magic True Love was.

But maybe, she mused as she carefully curled around the princess, being trapped by it wasn't the worst thing in the world.


End file.
